Claiming a free domain name.

When we have a domain name that we no longer need, and it is getting close to expiry, we sometimes offer the name to members of a domainer's forum, or I will offer names on this site. There is no payment to me/us involved, and this seems to confuse some claimants. I thought that I would describe the transfer process to speed up negotiations. There are two types of transfer, and either can be used.

A registrant push

A registrar transfer

The first thing to do is to check on the registrar for the name, and the expiry date. If the domain has expired, then you will need to pay for the renewal of the name. This can be done via the current registrar of the gaining registrar. Obviously if you are paying for renewal with the current registrar, you will need to have an account with that registrar. We use 3 registrars - Name Silo, GoDaddy and OnlineNIC, These are not interchangeable, so you will need to know which of these is the registrar associated with the name before starting the transfer.

Using a registrant push,

For the purposes of this example I am going to use Name Silo as the registrar. If you don't have an account with Name Silo, then clicking this link will take you to their pricing page, If you are a new customer, you can use the promo code NAMESTAG to get a $1 discount on yor first purchase. If you have an account with the registrar for the domain you are claiming, then all you need to do is to tell me the name of your account, and I will "push" the name into it. There is nothing for you to pay either to me, or to the registrar ( unless the name has expired of course).

Using a registrar transfer,

This is a little more complex. Let us assume that the name is registered with OLN, and you want to transfer it to your account with Name Silo. You will need to notify me that you want to use this method of transfer. I will then unlock the name, check that it has the correct email address in the details, and recover the transfer authorisation code. I will send you the auth code, and you will submit a transfer request to your registrar ( in this case Name Silo). Your registrar will have a link to allow you to do this. You will be asked for the authorisation code, and you will enter this at the time of your request. Name Silo will check that the name is unlocked, and that the authorisation code is correct. If either presents a problem, you will be notified, and you should contact me. Assuming all is well, Name Silo will obtain the email address from the registrant details, and send me an email to authorise the transfer. I will confirm the transfer, and the request will be forwarded to the losing registrar. Assuming that the losing registrar ( OLN ) has not objection to the transfer, the transfer will be submitted to the registry so that it can be moved to the gaining registrar. The registry will hold the transfer for a period of 5 days to allow for cancellation or rejection if the transfer is not genuine. You will be expected to pay for a one year extension to the registration period for the name, and this payment is made to the gaining registrar.

After either of these processes, the name is ready for you to use as you will, or to re-sell. Bear in mind that if you used a registrar transfer, then the name will probably be blocked against a further transfer for a period of 60 days following the completion of the transfer. On completion of the transfer, if there were no problems of course, it would be a nice gesture if you gave the donor of the name a positive trust or reputation credit.

From time to time we will arrange for some special offers for members. We may even give away some of our domain names. to obtain a free domain name, you will have to join and claim the name in a comment on the page - it will be first come, first served, so keep watching.